Despite the summer heat, the Senate of Venice assembled on this day in 1609 to view a remarkable scientific instrument. It was built by the well-known astronomer and philosopher from Pisa, Galileo Galilei, and could make distant objects appear closer when viewed through one end of its long pipe. It was a telescope.

Not that Galileo had invented the instrument. Credit for that is generally given to a Dutch stargazer who is almost forgotten today, Hans Lipperhay, who unveiled his basic telescope only the previous year, in 1608.

But Galileo, ever the practical perfectionist, had already improved upon the basic essentials and produced a variable-focus instrument that increased the size of the observed object by eight times.

Why he presented it first of all to the assembled Venetian senators is not clear. But perhaps the Venetians, who had business and commerce in their marrow, saw this instrument as a way to boost their glass lens industry. After all, Venice along with Florence, was the leading center for high-quality ground glass for spectacle lenses and magnifying glasses.

Certainly Galileo made money building and selling his telescope to eager customers, until his designs were overtaken in a relatively short time by more sophisticated types.

The telescope, of course, revolutionized astronomical observation and had a profound impact on overall scientific methodology, by allowing more exact mathematical calculations.

Blasphemous ‘Suncentricity’

It also brought into sharp focus the simmering dispute between those who followed the ancient belief of Greek and Egyptian proto-scientists that the Earth was the center of the universe, and that the planets revolved around it, and those who followed the Copernican theory that in fact our Earth is just one of a number of planets revolving around the sun.

Nicolaus Copernicus, the great Polish astronomer, had summarized his theories that the Earth revolved around the sun, instead of the other way around, some 60 years before Galileo intrigued the Venetian senators with his telescope.

Galileo, with his passion for exact observation and independent analysis, became ever more convinced through the use of his telescope that Copernicus was right. But it wasn’t long before this brought him into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church.

Some churchmen began attacking Galileo in 1610, arguing that God had made the Earth the center of the universe as a home for man.

By 1616, the matter had come to the official attention of the church, with the formal condemnation of “suncentricity” as “false and contrary to scripture.”

Galileo was warned to steer clear of such heresy, which he did for a number of years. But in 1632 he published a defense of his views. This landed him in front of that sinister body, the Inquisition. The Holy Office, as it preferred to be known, tried him, found him guilty of being “vehemently” suspect of heresy, and placed him under house arrest.

It also forced him to recant, which he did. Not very brave perhaps, but practical to the end, he may have thought it best to be a live astronomer than a dead ideologue.

It took the church 359 years to rehabilitate Galileo Galilei. Only in 1992 did the Vatican formally acknowledge that it had been wrong and Galileo right.

The astronomer died at his home outside Florence, still under house arrest, in 1642.

Project managers for the British Beagle lander program are seeking redemption – on the moon – nearly six years after their spacecraft disappeared on Mars.

Collin Pillinger who headed the unsuccessful Beagle Mars project is in discussion with the commercial “Odyssey Moon” program to fly a backup version of Beagle’s most powerful instrument on board the Odyssey lunar lander.

Drawing of Odyssey Moon commercial robotic lunar lander depicts spacecraft nearing lunar touchdown on thrust from lunar descent engine. Discussions are underway for use of a key British Beagle Mars lander instrument on the lunar lander. The program is attempting to win $30 million Goggle Lunar X Prize. Credit: Odyssey Moon

When lost in December, 2003, the Beagle Mars lander was seeking organic materials that could have been evidence of past life. But the Odyssey Moon program is seeking evidence for lunar resources that could be mined by future astronauts seeking profit.

The Beagle project’s magnetic mass spectrometer is especially suited for finding such molecules, says Everett K. Gibson a NASA senior geochemist and astrobiologist at the Johnson Space Center. Gibson has led Lunar Beagle studies at JSC, where the lunar version of the spacecraft has been tested. A similar Pillinger instrument is on board a European Space Agency spacecraft headed for a landing on a comet.

Years before the Odyssey Moon program came calling, the Beagle Mars program had already converted its backup hardware into a “Lunar Beagle” configuration for a NASA study on low cost robotic lunar concepts. Those study results remain viable and theoretically could result in a NASA Lunar Beagle type mission in several years, says Gibson. Top NASA headquarters personnel disagree, however.

The Odyssey Moon commercial lander and rover are under development at MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) in Canada using Canadian technology mated with a NASA spacecraft design already tested at the NASA Ames Research Center.

Top new U. S. personnel and hardware are also being added. Jay Honeycutt former director of the Kennedy Space Center has been hired as president of Odyssey Moon Ventures, responsible for all U.S. operations and launch programs for the lunar surface venture. He is based near Cape Canaveral.

Another major appointment to boost the project’s stature is the hiring of Alan Stern, a highly experienced manager and engineer who was previously NASA associate administrator for science. Another top official is Paul Spudis, previously chief scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Science Institute in Houston. He has just been hired as Odyssey Moon’s chief scientist.

“For a number of months we have had contact with Odyssey Moon and in early July we had “more firm” discussions,” Pillinger tells Spaceflight Now. “They are interested in our mass spectrometer, but arrangements are still tentative at this moment.”

British Beagle instruments, including magnetic mass spectrometer being eyed by Odyssey Moon program for use in finding lunar resources, is examined by Leicester University engineers in England who helped design it. Credit: Leicester University

The Beagle magnetic mass spectrometer has a strong capability to find and analyze volatile species like hydrogen and water ice and other molecules that would be critical for discovering and using lunar resources Gibson told Spaceflight Now.

Christopher Stott, a senior executive with Odyssey Moon has held the discussions. Stott was previously a manager with Boeing on the Delta IV and later with Lockheed Martin Space Systems where he helped lead international sales efforts.

Further discussions with Stott may be delayed a few weeks, however, because his wife, NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, is set for liftoff Aug. 25 on the space shuttle Discovery. She will be delivered to the ISS for a several month mission on board the outpost.

Odyssey Moon is one of 16 competitors in the Goggle Lunar X Prize competition that will award $30 million to the first team to fund a successful commercial robotic lunar landing. The winner must also demonstrate the ability for the mother ship or its rover to drive at least 500 meters (1,650 ft.).

The Odyssey Moon team was the first to register for the prize. From all outside appearances at least, it has already amassed a strong investor and engineering team. That includes signing an agreement with NASA for commercial use of a NASA lunar spacecraft that has already been designed and tested at the Ames Research Center.

The mission will cost about three or four times more than the prize money. But Odyssey Moon is focused not on just one flight, but an ongoing series that has lunar prospecting goals as well as science objectives.

Odyssey Moon had been planning to launch in 2011. But the company indicates that launch of the first commercial robotic lunar lander “MoonOne” (M-1) will likely slip by a year to at least mid 2012.

Use of a Minotaur V or SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle fits with the mission needs, although managers decline to discuss their launcher plans. Either rocket can deliver payloads of 5-50 kg to the lunar surface or 10-200kg to various lunar orbits, Ames studies indicate.

“I am extremely pleased and excited to be working on getting us back to the Moon in a sustainable way,” says Honeycutt. “I believe the private sector has an important role to play in a permanent and affordable lunar program.”

He has over 40 years of space experience, including key engineering and simulation positions at the Johnson Space Center during Apollo, Director of the NASA Kennedy Space Center and president of Lockheed Martin Space Operations.

Honeycutt will specifically focus on the commercialization of the NASA technology like the new Ames Common Bus lander. This should enable Odyssey to develop a series of robotic landings specialized for specific tasks at different landing sites.

Ames Research Center Hover Test Vehicle is examined by NASA engineers as it hangs above safety netting prior to flight to demonstrate software for NASA’s Modular Common Spacecraft Bus. Odyssey Moon will use this basic NASA design for its commercial lunar lander. Credit: NASA

Odyssey’s MoonOne (M-1) lunar lander will use utilize the Ames Research Center design for a modular Common Spacecraft Bus.

Under the terms of a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with Odyssey Moon Ventures LLC, Henderson, Nev., NASA Ames will share its small spacecraft technical l data and expertise with the company.

In return, Odyssey Moon Ventures will reimburse NASA Ames for the cost of providing the technical support and will share its technical data from its engineering tests and actual lunar missions with NASA.

“NASA is a big supporter of developing the commercial space sector, and is interested in developing small spacecraft for future lunar exploration,” says NASA Ames Research Center Director Pete Worden. By making these designs available to commercial enterprises, we hope to spark rapid development of low-cost, small spacecraft missions.”

Diagram of Ames Modular Common Spacecraft bus shows how simple subsystems could be assembled for a small NASA or commercial lunar lander. NASA has licensed its engineering data on the system to Odyssey Moon. Credit: NASA

NASA also will share data from the Ames Hover Test Vehicle, an engineering prototype to evaluate hardware and software systems. The Goggle Lunar X prize leaves open how each contender achieves 500 meter mobility. The Ames test vehicle, however, has demonstrated that it can not only land, but also rise off the moon and fire small thrusters to move sideways. This raises the possibility that the Odyssey lander can achieve the mobility of a rover, at least to win the $30 million prize and bragging rights that will go with it.

The Odyssey Moon venture is domiciled on the Isle of Man “to take advantage of favorable regulatory and export regimes that allow us to choose the best technologies and partners from around the world,” the company says. It is actually headquartered in the U. S. in Henderson, Nevada with offices also in Washington, D. C. as well as the Cape.

Pillinger headed the Planetary and Space Science Research Institute at England’s Open University.

After Beagle disappeared without a trace a British investigation sharply criticized the project’s management and testing but the spectrometer was not faulted.

ESA diagram shows major elements of Beagle Mars lander that disappeared during landing in December 2003. Mass spectrometer eyed for Odyssey Moon mission is among instruments on lander’s robotic arm. The disk shaped spacecraft was supposed to land useing a parachute and airbags, then open to deploy blue solar arrays and arm with instruments. Mole device (extreme left) could auger itself under rocks. Credit: European Space Agency

The first mission will be focused on assessing resources in dark mantle near the lunar equator. The second mission will be to the lunar South Pole and focused on a direct ground level search for water-ice.

One potential equatorial target is the moon’s Sulpicius Gallus region where analysis indicates there is extensive dark mantel. The material could produce extensive “feedstock” for the production of hydrogen and oxygen. The region is more than 100 mi. north of the Apollo 11 landing.

Another option is Rima Bode, rich in black volcanic glass and thorium. U. S. Geological Survey scientists say that it too could be a major lunar mining area in future decades. The area is near the Apollo 14 landing site.

Images taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter are helping to narrow other potential landing sites. Odyssey Moon is also extensively involved in support of and use of 45 year old NASA/Boeing Lunar Orbiter imagery. Data from those spacecraft are being to extract major new high resolution data as part of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project.

The program’s CEO, Robert Richards, is the director of Toronto based Optech Inc. the global market leader in the development, of advanced, laser-based survey systems. He also helped found the International Space University. The chairman of the Odyssey board is Ramin Khadmen who helped found Inmarsat and was Inmarsat Chief Financial Officer.

Other personnel who have joined Odyssey Moon with past careers in the Apollo program and more near term endeavors are:

If Odyssey Moon carries the Beagle spectrometer, the fact the first Beagle Mars spacecraft “went missing without a trace” are the kind of words that should generate a tremendous amount of “British press.” This could help scientists in the United Kingdom reclaim some luster lost upon British politicians who too often believe the words “British and space” are an oxymoron.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million international competition to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send images and data back to the Earth. Teams must be at least 90% privately funded and must be registered to compete by December 31, 2010. The first team to land on the Moon and complete the mission objectives will be awarded $20 million; the full first prize is available until December 31, 2012. After that date, the first prize will drop to $15 million. The second team to do so will be awarded $5 million. Another $5 million will awarded in bonus prizes. The final deadline for winning the prize is December 31, 2014.

July 20, 2004: The most famous thing Neil Armstrong left on the moon 35 years ago is a footprint, a boot-shaped depression in the gray moondust. Millions of people have seen pictures of it, and one day, years from now, lunar tourists will flock to the Sea of Tranquility to see it in person. Peering over the rails … “hey, mom, is that the first one?”

Ringed by footprints, sitting in the moondust, lies a 2-foot wide panel studded with 100 mirrors pointing at Earth: the “lunar laser ranging retroreflector array.” Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong put it there on July 21, 1969, about an hour before the end of their final moonwalk. Thirty-five years later, it’s the only Apollo science experiment still running.

University of Maryland physics professor Carroll Alley was the project’s principal investigator during the Apollo years, and he follows its progress today. “Using these mirrors,” explains Alley, “we can ‘ping’ the moon with laser pulses and measure the Earth-moon distance very precisely. This is a wonderful way to learn about the moon’s orbit and to test theories of gravity.”

Here’s how it works: A laser pulse shoots out of a telescope on Earth, crosses the Earth-moon divide, and hits the array. Because the mirrors are “corner-cube reflectors,” they send the pulse straight back where it came from. “It’s like hitting a ball into the corner of a squash court,” explains Alley. Back on Earth, telescopes intercept the returning pulse–“usually just a single photon,” he marvels.

The round-trip travel time pinpoints the moon’s distance with staggering precision: better than a few centimeters out of 385,000 km, typically.

Targeting the mirrors and catching their faint reflections is a challenge, but astronomers have been doing it for 35 years. A key observing site is the McDonald Observatory in Texas where a 0.7 meter telescope regularly pings reflectors in the Sea of Tranquility (Apollo 11), at Fra Mauro (Apollo 14) and Hadley Rille (Apollo 15), and, sometimes, in the Sea of Serenity. There’s a set of mirrors there onboard the parked Soviet Lunokhud 2 moon rover–maybe thecoolest-looking robot ever built.

In this way, for decades, researchers have carefully traced the moon’s orbit, and they’ve learned some remarkable things, among them:

(1) The moon is spiraling away from Earth at a rate of 3.8 cm per year. Why? Earth’s ocean tides are responsible.

(2) The moon probably has a liquid core.

(3) The universal force of gravity is very stable. Newton’s gravitational constant Ghas changed less than 1 part in 100-billion since the laser experiments began.

Physicists have also used the laser results to check Einstein’s theory of gravity, the general theory of relativity. So far, so good: Einstein’s equations predict the shape of the moon’s orbit as well as laser ranging can measure it. But Einstein, constantly tested, isn’t out of the woods yet. Some physicists (Alley is one of them) believe his general theory of relativity is flawed. If there is a flaw, lunar laser ranging might yet find it.

NASA and the National Science Foundation are funding a new facility in New Mexico, the Apache Point Observatory Lunar Laser-ranging Operation or, appropriately, “APOLLO” for short. Using a 3.5-meter telescope with good atmospheric “seeing,” researchers there will examine the moon’s orbit withmillimeter precision, 10 times better than before.

“Who knows what they’ll discover?” wonders Alley.

More and better data could reveal strange fluctuations in gravity, amendments to Einstein, the “sloshing” of the moon’s core. Time will tell … and there’s plenty of time. Lunar mirrors require no power source. They haven’t been covered with moondust or pelted by meteoroids, as early Apollo planners feared. Lunar ranging should continue for decades, perhaps for centuries.

Picture this: Tourists in the Sea of Tranquility, looking up at Earth. Half of the planet is dark, including New Mexico where a pinprick of light appears. A laser.

Solar power doesn’t have to be limited to Earth-based gadgets — at least, not if Carnegie Mellon roboticist Dr. William Whittaker has anything to say about it. Whitaker and Astrobiotic Technology have teamed up to develop a solar rover prototype that will explore the Apollo moon landing site and find out how materials used in the mission have fared over all these years.

The rover, which has been entered in the competition for the $25 million Google Lunar X Prize, features two motors in the hub of each wheel, a flat radiator tilted up to the sky on one side, and a half-cone of solar generators on the other side to power the wheels, run computers, and beam stereo HD video back to us on Earth.

There’s just one problem left to figure out: how to protect the rover from minus 240 F lunar nights. The team is experimenting with different ways to package lithium ion batteries to be able to function after two weeks of exposure to air that is nearly as cold as liquid nitrogen. Stay tuned to find out the results of the team’s experiments when the solar rover lands on the Apollo moon site in 2011!

July 21, 2009 -Mike Gronin, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Executives of Astrobotic Technology in Oakland believe they are a bit closer to winning a $20 million race to the moon.

Company Chairman William “Red” L. Whittaker, a Carnegie Mellon University robotics professor, and his colleagues on Monday showed off their third prototype of a robot they plan to send to the moon in May 2011.

The winner of the Google Lunar X PRIZE awarded by a California nonprofit that encourages innovation will be the first robot to land on the moon, travel 500 meters on the lunar surface and send images and data back to Earth.

Forty years ago yesterday, Apollo 11 astronauts became the first humans to land on the moon.

What’s special about this prototype, said Astrobotic spokesman David Gump, is that it should be able to withstand the intense heat a lunar day exerts.

“Before we weren’t solving the problem of the robot cooking itself at noon,” Gump said. That’s a particularly significant problem because the Astrobotic team plans to drop the Red Rover robot at Apollo 11’s landing site, which is at the moon’s equator. Temperatures there rise above 270 degrees Fahrenheit.

“There’s a lot of heat coming from the sun and a lot of heat bouncing off the lunar soil,” Gump said.

The Red Rover will diffuse heat in two ways. First, it will keep a cool side aimed away from the sun to radiate heat off to the black sky, Gump said. Secondly, by using composite structures made from carbon fiber tape and resin, the robot will be able to transmit heat from its hot to cold side more efficiently.

Nineteen teams with members from 35 countries are developing robots, said Will Pomerantz, senior director for space prizes for the X PRIZE Foundation in Playa Vista, Calif. Teams must be at least 90 percent privately funded. To collect the full $20 million, the goal must be achieved by Dec. 31, 2012.

“The contest is coming extremely well,” Pomerantz said. “It’s been a little under two years since we announced it and we’re a lot farther than we thought we’d be. It was designed to be a six- or seven-year journey. The teams are more diverse, better and bringing more talent to the table.”

Whittaker credits the nature of the contest.

He likens it to the $25,000 Raymond Orteig offered for the first nonstop aircraft flight between New York and Paris, which Charles Lindbergh won in 1927.

“Flying was a nascent technology,” Whittaker said. “It couldn’t attract a passenger service or investment by Wall Street. All that changed instantly in that moment of actualization. Flying became a darling experience. Everyone wanted to fly or take a flight. It gave rise to the vision of intercontinental flight and improved the quality of airplanes.”

That’s what’s about to happen once the Lunar X PRIZE teams figure out how to reach the moon without the help of NASA, said Bob Richards, CEO of Odyssey Moon, an Isle of Man company working to commercialize lunar travel.

“We’re going to make the moon relevant,” Richards said. “We view the moon as an eighth continent that’s largely been unexplored. Its proximity to Earth means it’s close enough to have an economy. The Earth and moon will be like two islands in an archipelago”

July 20, 2009 – David Templeton, Pittsburgh PostGazette
Plans are under way for humans to return to the moon “no later than 2020,” says NASA. And if and when it happens, people may remain there forever.

As a permanent outpost for humans, the moon may become not only a destination for science and exploration, but also for economic endeavors, including mining of platinum-based metals or collection of helium-3 for fusion-energy reactors back on Earth.

In time, the moon will have its own transportation system, energy grid and housing plans powered by solar-panels with fuel centers to provide rocket fuel for daily blastoffs to Earth and Mars.

Projections wax and wane about when people will revisit the moon and what will happen when they do.

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But the NASA Authorization Act of 2005 has established a program to develop a sustained human presence on the moon, with an emphasis on “exploration, science, commerce and U.S. pre-eminence in space.” That program will serve “as a stepping stone to future exploration of Mars and other destinations” throughout the solar system.

NASA’s Web site says work on the moon will enable eventual settlement, with an emphasis on lunar activities that hold a direct benefit to life on Earth.

Human settlement of the moon represents an even bigger step for people and a more humongous leap for humankind. And people now are preparing to make that leap.

William “Red” Whittaker, Carnegie Mellon University roboticist and chairman of Astrobotic Technology Inc., holds a robot-centric view of the universe and says robots will work for years preparing a lunar landing base, energy infrastructure and housing before humans return there. He believes humans will return in about 2022.

“The early presence will be machines, not people,” Dr. Whittaker said. “Robots will be the agents of exploration.”

David Gump, Astrobotic president, said the company hopes to send a robot to the moon and win the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize in May 2011. Eventually it will send other robots to explore the moon, prepare the way for humans and mine valuable resources.

The first people to return will share the moonscape with a troop of robots doing excavation, among other chores. A lunar colony could be situated on the rim of a crater, possibly the Shackleton Crater at the moon’s South Pole, where, theories hold, water may exist.

NASA says the lunar South Pole has elevated quantities of hydrogen, which could be in the form of ice. The South Pole also has areas with greater than 80 percent sunlight and less extreme temperatures.

That first human habitats could be an inflatable structures already in development, or robot-built habitats buried under moon dirt known as regolith. Such a structure below the surface would protect people against solar and cosmic galactic radiation that can cause cancer, cataracts, acute radiation sickness, hereditary effects and damage to the central nervous system. A long-term plan would involve transforming lunar lava tubes — tunnels created by lava flow — into underground homes for people.

Robots could explore lava tubes long before humans arrive. Constructing walls and protective doors would make it possible to fill the lava tubes with oxygen and create moderate temperatures.

As for a landing site, Dr. Whittaker and Mr. Gump said robots could position rocks to provide a landing pad and prevent high-speed blasts of regolith during touchdowns and liftoffs. Robots also could build a horseshoe-shaped bank of regolith around the landing pad to protect habitats, people and equipment from flying regolith.

Solar panels would provide electricity. A fuel station would use electrolysis to divide lunar water into liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to power rockets. Oxygen generators would sustain human life.

On the moon, astronauts would use smaller vehicles to cruise the outpost and larger ones for long-distance travel and exploration.

Once settled, humans could explore and mine. Helium-3, a gas rare on Earth but common on the lunar surface, can be used in fusion energy with no radioactive risk or threat of global warming. Mr. Gump said one large shuttle-load of helium-3 from the moon could meet Earth’s total energy needs for a year.

Also, the moon would be a low-gravity base to send astronauts to Mars and elsewhere in the solar system. The moon’s perfect vacuum also would allow for easy production of drugs that require expensive vacuum chambers on Earth.

Dr. Whittaker said humans always have found ways to survive in unusual environments, be it the New World after 1492, Antarctica throughout the 20th century or current efforts to survive at the bottom of the ocean or atop high mountains.

The South Pole in Antarctica could serve as a model for international cohabitation of the moon.

Reaching ever deeper into the future, Mr. Gump said space travel may become as common as airplane travel today. By 2040, humans likely will be on Mars.

“It took a long time for people to think that Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas could support life,” Mr. Gump said. “Now it’s the breadbasket of the entire planet. It took people spending time there to find out what is good there. It’s the same with the moon.”

So in decades to come, he said, human lunar outposts could expand into ever larger domed areas filled with oxygen and featuring entertainment, housing and business. It would be a futuristic scenario with humans donning wings to fly inside the dome.

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a superhuman display of our ability to adapt.